ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU AT THE 2023 CABINET RETREAT FOR MINISTERS, PRESIDENTIAL AIDES, PERMANENT SECRETARIES AND TOP GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONARIES AT THE STATE HOUSE CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2023

It is a great morning in Nigeria and I am humbled and happy to stand before you on this retreat, with forward-looking determination to embark on a very strong, bold endeavour to rebuild our country’s economy and our people’s hope renewed.
2. Thank you very much for your attendance. With strong determination, we are brought together the best brains, the best hands to navigate the future of this country.

3. We are not looking backwards; we can’t compare and give excuses. This is our country we have to build it; we have to renew the foundation. We have to give hope to the populace, to Nigerians in doubt whether democracy and economic growth will be the pathway to their prosperity.

4. I’m here to assure you and walk with you the best brains we can put together in civil service, the brain that we can put together in our democratic parliament and have been chosen for us by the public.

5. It is a good thing that the chairman of our party is here but the President is the president of all, whether affiliated with some political parties, regardless of religious, ethnic or otherwise, we are one.

6. A great Nigeria is possible, and a greater Nigeria will come under your commitment, guidance, and resolute determination to give the country a direction.

7. I’m with you. And please be assured that this great country is one family in one house, geographically located, partitioned, and living in different rooms. But we are all one family.

8. And we are here to make allegiance and give direction to that one family, making sure that relationships can only be stronger if we give hope to our people. We can only achieve our mission with boldness and strong determination with collaboration.

9. As I’ve stated before, no one succeeds alone. You the civil service, you must not see a minister as he or she will come and go and you will be there. You must make a positive team for the good of this country.

10. Yes! I admit and accept the asset and liability of my predecessor. It’s part of the definition in my professional background.

11. But you are in this ship. You will make good of it but not wreck it. You are a member of a great family; don’t see that minister as opportunistic. See, he or she as a partner that we must take the ship forward. Navigate it through turbulence and clear weather.

12. We are lucky we have a nation; the challenges are all over the world. You can see the chaos all around you. But be focused, like a man driving in the tunnel, don’t see the sky, don’t look up, face your direction. Be committed to the value and principle of results that will affect you, your neighbour, and the entire nation.

13. We’ve spent the last six months reviewing and evaluating ourselves, we’ve come a long way, but we set the agenda. Healthcare is a priority. Education of our people is a must. There is no other weapon against poverty than education. You have the opportunity to change things.

14. Recently, three days ago, we received the Chancellor of the Republic of Germany and his delegation of investors. One of their key complaints and the question is whether they can bring their capital, repatriate their dividend, or, if not satisfied, take their capital away. The Minister of Trade and Investment was called upon by me to explain further, that those obstacles are gone, never to come back again. We are open for business.

15. That is why we established the Result Delivery Unit. At the end of this retreat, you’re going to sign a bond of understanding between you, the ministers, the permanent secretaries, and myself.

16. If you are performing, nothing to fear; if you miss the objective, we’ll review; if there is no performance, you leave us. No one is an island, and the buck stops on my desk.

17. I assure you, you have a free hand. You must be intellectually inquisitive to ask how, why, when, and why it must be immediate. You have the responsibility to serve the people.

18. I’ve taken a young lady very dynamic, Hadiza Balla Usman, to head that delivery unit. If you have any complaints about her, see me. If you’re ready to work with her, stay there. Delivery, yes! we must achieve it for the sake of millions of people.

19. Yes, we are talking about the population of this country. What do you do with it? Make it an asset or a liability? Focus on its progress and come up with bold endeavours. We are great talents around the world, the biggest intellectually sound country in Horn of Africa.

20. Yes, we have challenges in the Sahel, we have challenges of climate change, south and north of Nigeria is battered, with ocean surge, we have desert encroachment in the north, but we are still blessed with arable lands. We can do it; we can build our country.

21. It’s not about theorizing. It’s about practical determination and focused evaluation. Yes, it is our country. We have no other one. Let’s be proud that we are Nigerians. We can do it, we can show leadership, we can fight to make democracy a lasting reference for the rest of Africa.

22. Don’t be afraid to make decisions, but don’t be antagonistic of your supervisor. If they are wrong, debate it. I stand before you and I’ve claimed on several occasions and I’m saying today again as the president, I can make mistakes, point it to me I would resolve that conflict, that error, perfection is only that of God Almighty. But you are there to help me succeed. Success I must achieve by all means necessary.

23. We have great minds, great intellectuals, great intellects, and all that we need.

24. When we were discussing this retreat, I said other than members of diplomatic corps to give us goodwill and inspiration, don’t invite any foreigner to give me a lecture about governance. I’ve been through it, and I believe in Nigeria.

25. It started from the day I was sworn in, and that bold endeavour is only achieved through courage, determination, and focused leadership.

26. We are going through the reform, painfully, and we still have other challenges. Don’t be a clog in the wheel of Nigeria’s progress.

27. Let us look forward. Let us be determined that corruption will go, progress will be achieved, better wages for our workers, and living wages.

28. We will transform the economy to work for millions of our citizens. We must take 50 million people out of poverty. We must build healthcare that works for all. Look around. Don’t be wicked. Look at the standard of education, look at the classrooms, and look at the roads. We can only spend the money, we will find it, we can not spend the people.

29. No crime in borrowing. Thank you, World Bank, for being a lending friend. But let your achievement be homegrown. The determination that Nigeria can do it is here.

30. If it had not started six months ago, we are here to switch off the light, make you included, and make all Nigerians included. Our path for tomorrow is charted for our children and grandchildren. Don’t be selfish about it.

31. Poverty is not a shameful thing. It’s only unacceptable. And we have to banish it because it’s unacceptable. Let’s work on other identifiable areas.

32. Because a memo is submitted to you doesn’t mean that is the end of that matter. Think through it. Be inquisitive. Ask how, when, why.

33. I’m ready to enjoy the retreat going forward. We are not retreating from progress. We are just to talk to one another and chart a path for progress and prosperity of this nation. I’m honoured to declare this brainstorming session open. Thank you.

For Drambi Vandi, the trigger happy police officer who shot and killed a Lagos lawyer, Bolanle Raheem on Christmas day 2022, the long hand of justice ran its full circle early Monday, (09 October) as Justice Ibironke Harrison, sitting in Lagos Division of the Lagos State High Court, pronounced a death sentence on him. He is to die by hanging.

Vandi, since suspended from duty in wake of the reckless shooting and killing of the young mother if two, by the Police authorities, has been facing a one-count charge of murder at the Lagos State High Court since January 2023.

The judge, Ibironke Harrison on Monday found the disgraced police officer guilty of murder and thus sentenced him accordingly.
“The court found the defendant guilty on one count of murder. You will be hanged by the neck till you are dead,” Harrison said.
On 25 December 2022, Mrs Raheem was said to be coming from the Church with other members of her family when they encountered the police check-point under the Ajah roundabout, in Lekki axis of the Lagos State.

Vandi allegedly fired a blinded shot into the car conveying the deceased which hit her and resulted in the death of Mrs Raheem, who was said to be carrying a five months pregnancy at the time.
The police officer was attached to the Ajiwe police division in the Ajah area of the state.
The news shocked the whole nation and instantly, both the police authorities and the Lagos State government swung into action. While the Lagos State Police Command immediately suspended him from its service, the State swiftly filed a murder charge against him at the State High Court.

The Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had presented a one-count charge of murder of the young lady against the defendant and subsequently arraigned him.
The court opened the trial in the case in January, with the deceased’s husband, sister, police armourer, pathologist and seven others testifying against the defendant.
The prosecution also tendered 27 exhibits to supports its case.
The defendant, Vandi did not called any witness. He was the only witness who testified in his own defence.
In his testimony before the court, Vandi told the judge that the bullet presented in court which was said to have killed Mrs Raheem did not come from the rifle he carried on the day of the incident.

He also claimed that he had never seen the bullet until it was tendered in court.

The strident efforts of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, to upturned the electoral victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are already receiving a negative backlash among Nigerians, as more people now perceived the action as mere persecution, thus earning the embattled president public empathy.

Atiku, a former vice president, has been utterly relentless in his pursuit of the aftermath of the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February presidential poll in the country. He had deployed all available arsenal he could access to battle the friend-turned-foe, both legal and otherwise.
While his battery of lawyers, led by Chief Chris Uche (SAN), are in courts, both in Nigeria and United States (US) looking for judicial means of upstaging the president, his propaganda machine are feverishly churning out ground shaking bended information, meant to misinformed the neutrals.

The traditional media, broadcast and print, have been heavily polarised along the pro-Atiku and Pro-Tinubu schisms, all claiming bragging rights.
The verdict of the a U.S. court in Illinois was celebrated hotly by both camps, all claiming victory.
According to Chief Lekan Agbaje, a political leader in South West, “what pains me in all these is that it is the truth that suffers”.
He added “that Atiku is bitter is an understatement. He is 77 years old, and may not have the physical strength to run another strenuous campaigns come 2027, therefore his near hysterical reaction to this loss”.

“But one thing all of them should encourage is the overall interest of the country, not the personal interest we all can see them pursuing now”, he continued.
He urged both sides to “allowed the apex court to adjudicate first before churning out all these poorly ill-informed opinions and commentaries”.

But late Friday, (06 October) Atiku, through his lawyer, Chief Uche, approached the Supreme Court seeking to file fresh evidence obtained from a U.S. court in Illinois. He claimed that the “certificate Tinubu submitted to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 presidential election was fake, forged and falsified”.
The former vice president urged the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Tsammani-led Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) and disqualify Tinubu on the grounds of certificate forgery.

He cited as his ground for disqualification Section 137 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which states that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if –
(j) “he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission”.
He also cited Section 467, Criminal Code Act (Nigeria) which states that; “Any person who forges any document, writing, or seal, is guilty of an offense which, unless otherwise stated, is a felony, and he is liable if no other punishment is provided, to imprisonment for three years.”
His lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) drew the attention of the Supreme Court to an earlier precedence set by the Apex Court in the case of UZODINMA vs. IZUNASO & Ors (2011), where fresh evidence were adduced and accepted by the court.

He also cited the case where Chief Wole Olanipekun in 2011, while representing Mr. Hope Uzodinma against Osita Izunaso & Ors filed new evidence in his appeal at the apex court after pleading that he could not assemble the evidence at the initial court of trial.
While setting aside the judgment of the court of appeal upholding the return of Sen. Osita Izunaso, the five-man panel of justices of the apex court led by Walter Onnoghen JSC in its unanimous judgment said that: “Learned counsel for the Appellant, Chief W. Olanipekun SAN observed that the trial took just three days and judgment was delivered on 28/l/2011. He thus had very little time to assemble relevant documentary evidence, including exhibit HU2.”

The panel while dismissed the objection from counsel to Osita Izunaso and accepting the fresh evidence
But according to the analysis of Mr. James Adebowale, a legal practitioner, Atiku’s lawyers may be wrong in their understanding of the deposition of the Registrar of the Chicago State University (CSU).

This is because the deposition confirmed no forgery of CSU certificate
A lawyer and former member of the Justice Committee of the House of Representatives, Kayode Oladele, described as a “fruitless fishing expedition” the fresh application by Atiku Abubakar, for leave of the Supreme Court to file and tender Tinubu’s academic records which he termed as fresh evidence and just handed over to him by the Chicago State University, United States of America on October 2.
He made his position on the demand by the former Vice President known in a statement in the early hours of Sunday (08 October).

Oladele said while the Supreme Court Rules allow fresh evidence in certain circumstances, election petitions definitely do not fall within the narrow exceptions.
He said: “Any evidence that did not form part of the record from the Presidential Election Petitions Court cannot be adduced on appeal to the Supreme Court under the colour or toga of fresh evidence.

“This is because Election Petition is sui generis and it is in the class of its own.
“In other words, an election petition is a proceeding which is of its own kind, possessing an individualistic character, unique and similar only to itself.
“It is unlike ordinary civil proceedings; and it is governed by its own unique constitutional and statutory provisions.”
Furthermore, Oladele stated that the provisions of the “Supreme Court Rules regarding fresh evidence will not apply in this case because any piece of evidence not in place during the filing of the Petitioner’s Petition or within 21 days thereof cannot be allowed to be filed In whatever form in election petition cases.

“This is Constitutional.
“Otherwise, it would amount to an extension of time and amendment of the Petition.
“To this end, it is trite that the provisions of Order 2 of the Supreme Court Rules will not apply in Atiku’s case.
“It is inapplicable to election petition.
“Atiku’s attempt is spurious, invidious and fruitless fishing expedition as it would be outside the period of 180 days.
“Election Petition matters have their Rules (First Schedule) and Practice Directions distinct from the Supreme Court Rules.
“What is more, a cursory look at Atiku’s Petition shows that there is no pleading in support of the result from Chicago State University.
“It is clear in law that documents not supported by pleadings go to no issue.
“Ipso facto, evidence on facts not pleaded goes to no issue.
“In other words, any evidence led by a party which is in conflict with the party’s pleadings are of no consequence.”